48 Hour Book Challenge, day one recap

Fake Mustache by Tom Angleberger (a middle-grade break from the YA—amusing, but I won’t be reviewing it)

A Girl Named Digit by Annabel Monaghan

DNF

Pretty Crooked by Elisa Ludwig — maybe the prologue should have been my first clue, because chapter one actually seemed a better starting point. In any case, after another 50+ pages of lots of description, lots of talk, but no story, I was bored and couldn’t be bothered to finish.

Black Dawn by Rachel Caine (Morganville Vampires #12) — oh Morganville, I just can’t quit you. I really liked the first six books, but I’ve become less and less invested in the series as it’s gone on. I mostly skimmed the last couple of books, and skimmed even more of this one. Still, I’ll probably end up borrowing the next one from the library, anyway.

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Thank you for your pledge to RIF, we are deeply appreciative! And I am so glad to see that someone else doesn’t mind admitting you are just giving up on a book…it just happens sometimes and I see no reason to be hesitant to say so. All best wishes, thank you again and for pledge and Book People Unite!

You’re welcome for the donation! And thank you for everything RIF does. Because as much as I love getting books into the hands of children as a librarian, at the end of the day, it’s still a library book that needs to be returned to the library. But a book a child can *keep*? Even better.

As for giving up on books, I used to force myself to finish everything I started. I don’t anymore, and managed to shed any guilt I once felt about. Now, whenever I go booktalking, I always tell students to feel free to put a book down if it’s not working for them and it’s not required reading for school. Maybe they’re just not in the right mood for that particular book; maybe it’s just not the right book for *them* and everyone will not like the same book(s). Especially for kids who don’t like to read, I don’t think forcing (or guilt-tripping) anyone into finishing a book they’re not enjoying will magically turn them into readers.

Thank you! I haven’t done a blog update yet today, but I’ve just about hit my original goal of 16 hours. I haven’t written as many reviews as I’d have liked so far, but I still have time to do more before the challenge ends.

As for Morganville, I don’t know. I think I started skimming around the time we started getting additional narrators. Plus there’s a sameness to each book in terms of general story arc that didn’t bother me in the early days but kinda bores me now. And yet I can’t give up on the series…